Satan Temps Our Internal Passions - 1 Chronicles 20-24

1 Chronicles 21:7-9 (ESV)

But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” And the LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,

To understand these two verses of this chapter in 1 Chronicles, we need to see how that chapter began:

1 Chronicles 21:1-2 (ESV)

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.”

There is an interesting trifecta of dynamics interrelated here.   You have Satan coming to incite David to number the nation.  You have David confessing to God his sin of numbering the nation (his pride to see his achievements).  You have God prepared to discipline David for his pride that was stirred up by Satan’s temptation.  The temptation was real.  The enticement of Satan intense.  David yielded to it.   David DID NOT BLAME SATAN for his heart of pride.   David took responsibility for his heart.  Perhaps this is something he learned earlier in the Bathsheba debacle.   David allowed his heart to be enticed by Satan.  This is different than the story of Job as in that story, Satan does all the destruction and Job remains innocent.  In this story Satan only entices.   David is not innocent.    Later we will read about the Messiah (the descendent of David) who also will be tempted and incited by Satan.  But, Jesus does not succumb to that temptation (Luke 4).  He fights it off by quoting God’s Word.    David did not.  This is a daily occurrence in most of our lives.  We are constantly indicted by Satan and his demons to disobey God.  Satan uses our own proclivities to seduce us into sin and failure before God.   We must never forget that Satan wants this to happen to us.  But, we must also never forget that it is US that succumbs due to our own sinful, internal passions.   Satan knows them.   We would be wise to know them as well and rather submit them to God as instruments of righteousness, rather than to Satan as instruments for unrighteousness. 

Romans 6:12-14 (ESV)

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.